Over the past year, shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) have traveled in different directions. Alphabet’s shares have gained just over 32% in the past 12 months and Apple shares have lost just over 30% in the same period. On Thursday, Alphabet once more topped the rankings of the world’s most valuable companies when its market cap reached $498.6 billion, nearly $2 billion more than Apple’s market cap.
Alphabet passed Apple for the top spot as the world’s most valuable company once before, in February, but that distinction lasted only about a week. Apple had passed Microsoft as the world’s most valuable tech company in 2010 and then blew past Exxon Mobil to become the world’s most valuable company the following year.
Apple’s stock touched a new 52-week low Thursday morning at $89.47 and dropped about 3% compared with Wednesday’s closing price. Alphabet isn’t exactly bringing the heat; its shares traded down slightly Thursday morning.
Slowing iPhone sales weighed so heavily on Apple’s earnings in the most recent quarter that Apple sales fell year over year for the first time in 13 years. Those were the prehistoric, pre-iPhone days of the iPod, Apple’s first huge 21st century success.
There is little question that iPhone sales have carried Apple to its heights, and now that smartphone sales are falling globally, prospects for iPhone sales to push Apple out of a prolonged slump are not rosy-gold.
In the noon hour Thursday, Alphabet shares traded down 0.7%, at $726.00 in a 52-week range of $538.85 to $810.35. The consensus price target on the shares is $911.33, yielding an implied upside to Thursday’s current price of more than 25%. Alphabet’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is 18.29.
Apple stock traded at $89.97, down about 2.7%, in a 52-week range of $89.47 to $132.97. The consensus price target is $126.25. That works out to an implied upside of 40%. Apple’s forward P/E ratio is 9.84.
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